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Team Profile:
Beca "Crewsaders"
The Crewsaders team hails from the Christchurch office of Beca, the New Zealand-based engineering consultancy. Along with a few friends, they first started paddling in the Corporate Grade in 2006 – ’07 season as complete novices. Since then, they’ve come a long way- at race pace. The Crewsaders are now one of the most competitive teams in the Aoraki Association with results in the Corporate competition speaking for themselves:
| 2007 – 08 |
2nd in the Early Bird regatta and
2nd in the South Island Champs
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| 2008 – 09 |
1st in the Early Bird regatta and
2nd in the South Island Champs |
| 2009 – 10 |
1st in the Early Bird Regatta and
1st in the South Island Champs |
Not only that, in their first-ever National Champs in March 2010, they were crowned the fastest Corporate team in the country, only just missing out making the Grand Final.
All of this was achieved without having their own set of lightweight IDBF-compliant paddles. Serious fund-raising is now underway with the intention of buying a set of carbon-fibre paddles, ready to defend their titles and give a few more Open teams a fright at the sharp end of the 2010 – 11 season.
Much of the credit for the team’s improvement must go to a hard core of long-serving team members.
- First, there’s Mel Foster who was the team manager and organiser for the first three years of paddling (and not for nothing is her nickname “Boozy Chick”).
- Then there’s Brett Christie - the team’s own Duracell battery. He may looks like he’s on performance-enhancing drugs but that’s his normal state of hyper-activity.
- Andrew Jackson (“Jacko”) - part of the mid-boat powerhouse who also provides the motivational words on the start line.
- In contrast to Jacko, another member of the powerhouse team, Nik Stewart, hardly says a word on or off the water - letting his phenomenal paddling do the talking.
- And at the back of the boat with the long, flowing, blond locks is Judd Stanton (NB: happily married with children), our sweep and assistant coach.
- Finally, there’s Andy Lash, the team coach. Although he said he was resigning at the end of the 2008 – ‘09 season, he keeps coming back to squeeze yet more effort out of the team - he just can’t keep away... Andy must have been able to see some promise in the rabble that was the early Crewsaders and, through his expert guidance, has transformed the team into what you see today.
The Crewsaders have come to represent Beca’s goal of “One Team – One Vision”! See you on the water!
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Key Team players:
- Ian Macbeth (manager)
- Judd Stanton (sweep)
- Andy Lash (coach)
Long servers:
- Mel Foster
- Brett Christie
- Judd Stanton
- Andy Lash
- Andrew Jackson
- Nik Stewart
- Ben Johnson
Crewsaders are grateful for the ongoing support from Beca
Other teams:
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